Now I see that it just didn’t suit them because they had a different picture of me. For instance, when I came home with my head shaved the first time, that was a big problem for my father. Me, as the eldest daughter... and actually such a good girl. And now all at once really short hair, which isn’t feminine at all – not as far as he’s concerned anyway. I didn’t feel they accepted me then, because I reckoned I should be able to do what I liked with my appearance and they should still love me. But in a way I didn’t feel that they did. I don’t really think they wanted me to feel that way or that that was the way it really was for them. Just the same, if I can’t understand where they’re coming from, there’s bound to be conflict.

People at school react to me in different ways. Some of them reckon I’m a bit nuts, others say I’ll get over it. It just depends. Some of them think it’s crazy, others think it’s great. But I can handle that.

A lot of my friends outside school looked like me. When I joined groups, I naturally wanted to fit in. But I didn’t just want to change my appearance to be the opposite of something I didn’t like; I also wanted to make my own way, find out what I really like.

I got the nose-ring put in when I was 16, the lip-ring and belly-button ring a bit later. My mother didn’t want me to do that at all. She thought it was really ugly. But I did it just the same. And that really started the ball rolling. After that I kept hearing from my Grandma and other people: But you’re such a pretty girl! Why do you have to go doing that? Yeah, it just doesn’t correspond to their idea of what’s aesthetic. They see it as a disfigurement. They simply can’t understand that I think it looks good.